Living Lights

An interactive carbon emission visualizer

Carbon emission visualizer

Living Lights

Year: 2020
Field: Interaction Design
Type: Team Project
Role: Project Lead

About This Project

Living Lights is an artistic Interaction Design project developed to visualize the carbon emission footprint of the Dutch city of Delft. This project has been created in collaboration with the Municipality of Delft and four other students from The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

Model of Delft
The Model of Delft
Model Close-up 1
Close-up of the lit up Model of Delft 1
Model Close-up 2
Close-up of the lit up Model of Delft 2

Model of Delft

The primary touchpoint of the Living Lights system is the Model of Delft, a 75cm by 75cm model of Delft's historic city center featuring 3D-printed houses on a custom-made map. The model is equipped with several LEDs that light up the city from underneath to represent the region’s energy-saving statistics.

Model of Delft Light Setup
Model of Delft
Model of Delft Lit Up

Information Kiosk

The information kiosk is the core component of the design through which users can interact with the Model of Delft. The key element of the kiosk are the three scenario buttons at the bottom of the screen: Once clicked, these buttons visualize the carbon emission data of the city across different neighborhoods.

The kiosk has been built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can view an interactive version of the design here.

Kiosk UI Mockup 1
Kiosk UI Mockup 2
Kiosk Model Wireframe

Mobile Application

In addition to the information kiosk, the integrated Living Lights application allows residents to learn more about how they can reduce their daily carbon footprint. By completing challenges, users can collect rewards and compare themselves with others to see which area of the city is the greenest.

Year: 2020
Client: Municipality Delft
Field: Interaction Design
Type: Team Project
Role: Project Lead
Kiosk Main Screen
Kiosk main screen
Kiosk Screen Green Selected
All green neighborhoods highlighted
Kiosk CAD 1
Kiosk CAD drawing front
Kiosk CAD 2
Kiosk CAD drawing back

About

Introduction

Living Lights is an interactive system built to inspire the residents of Delft to reduce their daily carbon footprint. The development of this project has been supported by the Dutch Energy Transition Group and the Municipality of Delft.

Background

Based on a design brief by the Dutch Energy Transition Group, the goal of this project was to inform the residents of Delft about the city's excessive carbon footprint. With the help of funding from the Municipality of Delft, Living Lights has been developed to visualize the carbon emission data of the city and nudge residents to rethink their daily energy consumption behavior. The installation is currently on display in the city hall of Delft.

Code Structure

The serial connection between the Model of Delft and the information kiosk allows users to control the lights of the model directly from the touchscreen panel of the kiosk. This is made possible through an intricate code network written in HTML, JavaScript, and Processing.

Tools Used

  •  Autodesk AutoCAD
  •  Autodesk 3ds Max
  •  Arduino IDE
  •  Processing
  •  HTML, CSS, JavaScript